


Herbology and Astronomy

by emotionalsupporthufflepuff



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Astronomy, Ben Solo is a smooth fucker, F/M, Herbology, Historical, Rey likes plants, They were professors!, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:21:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,810
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24725944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emotionalsupporthufflepuff/pseuds/emotionalsupporthufflepuff
Summary: Ben Solo is the new Astronomy professor and three days in he's already under Rey's skin.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61
Collections: A Picture is worth 1000 Words - PL Summer Exchange





	Herbology and Astronomy

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JGoose13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JGoose13/gifts).



> To my giftee: I really really hope you like it! I'm not experienced in writing historical so I kept the language modern. Also, I'm shit at titles so I apologize for that too

It was only his third day at Hogwarts, but Rey had decided she hated the new Astronomy teacher.  _ Hated him _ . He had no right to come in here and try to make such drastic changes to the school schedules. Hogwarts had run smoothly for nearly 600 years; there was no need to fix what wasn’t broken. 

His voice was so deep it seemed to shake the very stone the castle was built upon, and it carried with him hardly having to speak up at all. He carried himself like a prince, though technically he was, here at Hogwarts, he was a  _ Professor,  _ and there was no need to command the whole room or wear finely embroidered waistcoats and certainly no need for such drastic changes. 

And ones that would affect her classes so much. 

“I’d like my students to start at midnight, and I want to keep for at least three hours since I can only have them once a week.” He pressed a thick finger to the enormous spread of parchment on the table in the teacher’s meeting area. “Or I want them twice a week, once at night for practical lessons and once during the day for review. I have a charm that projects a full-scale model of our solar system, that should be proficient enough with practical lessons.” 

Rey squared her shoulders, pulling up the sleeves of her plain black working dress because she had hoped to get back to greenhouses before lunch ( and now she’d be lucky if she saw the sun again today.) 

“Professor…” she tried to interrupt, but he just kept talking. She turned to her friend, Charms professor, and head of Ravenclaw, Rose. “What was his name?” 

“Solo. Ben Solo, but I don’t think he responds to ‘Professor yet either. Man likes to hear himself talk, huh?” Rose mumbled from the corner of her mouth. 

“I think that’s all he can hear,” she mumbled back. “Professor Solo!” 

She said it so loud the whole room fell quiet. “I think you’re not considering the morning classes with your demands. It’s ridiculous to think that the first years would be able to get themselves settled and rested, then be ready for a 9 am class.” 

He stared at her, mouth slightly open, and dark eyes scrutinizing her carefully. “Fine, we’ll put the first years on Friday nights. Happy?” 

“We could hardly expect the same of second years as well; these are  _ children  _ after all,” Rey said, feeling very smug.

The tension in the room swelled as Solo starred her down, arms spread over the table like he was praying for patience.

“Hufflepuff, right?” he said at least. “Muggle-born but adopted by Purebloods? Yes, I know all about you. The magical world is small, secrets don’t keep very long.” He drummed his fingers along the table. “Just like it’s no secret, Hogwarts has fallen behind in magical education standards because of complacent professors.” 

Rey felt her face flush all the way up to her hairline. 

“What does blood status have to do with that?” Rose snapped, stalking up to the table.

But Rey didn’t care to find out. She took the sharp rise in noise to slip out of the room and make her way down the stairs, through the Great Hall and out to the greenhouses. 

At this point in the late summer, her greenhouses where just how she liked them, full of greenery and flowers and teeming with life. Purple aconite, pink puffapods, and white Asphodel, we’re in full bloom on one side, and her large and very friendly venomous tentacula was stretching its vines happily against the warm glass. 

This where she belonged. Plants didn’t care who your parents were or what your house was; Dittany would heal all our wounds the same, just as any devils snare would try to entrap you. Nature was a great equalizer against blood prejudice.

Methodically she began taking inventory of what she had and what she would need to order for the upcoming year. Just enough mandrake seedlings to start the second years, enough stinging nettle and moly for first years…

The sun was setting behind the mountains by the time she was interrupted by someone rapping on the glass door of the greenhouse. 

Professor Solo was almost as tall as the ancient glass door frame, stuffing his hands into the pocket of his robes, looking uncharacteristically unsure of himself. 

The pain of his words had been numbed to a dull ache, but she still managed a reproachful look. “Can I help you?” 

“I came to apologize if I offended you -”

“If? Oh my, it was no offense at all how you said Muggle-born and Hufflepuff the same way one would say  _ scum.  _ Happens all the time.” she said through gritted teeth. 

It was his turn to be thoroughly embarrassed. “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant more as -”

“As what Solo?” 

“I know how it looks. Pureblood, Slytherin. But I’m not blood prejudice. My point, however, was though it was supposed to be a secret, it’s not. Everyone knows the Abbots adopted you just like everyone knows you’re the most gifted Herbologist since Hufflepuff herself. “he looked around the greenhouse with his arms out at his side. “I can see what they mean.” 

Rey grinned, despite herself, forced it down, and kicked at the dirt floor. “Thank you, Professor- “

“Please call me Ben. We are colleagues, after all. “

“Alright. Thank you, Ben.” She wiped her hands on her dress and looked down at her dirt-covered skirt and hands, then out to the setting sun. Her stomach gurgled embarrassingly loudly. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to go clean up for dinner. A  _ Tergo  _ just doesn’t cut it for dragon dung manure.” 

“Come up to the Astronomy tower after dinner, please. There’s something I want to show you.” 

When she went to change for dinner, she found all she had readily available was a yellow gown of creamy yellow that was really too formal for a summertime dinner, but as her stomach roared and tried to digest its self, she figured it was better to breach protocol with too formal as oppose to being dirty. 

As she entered the Great Hall from the basement stairs, she could swear she felt a pair of eyes watching her enter. When she took her seat at the long head table, she finally found his gaze, pretending to be interested in whatever his head of House Phineas Black, was saying. 

Someone sat down next to her shaking her from her thoughts yet again. Gryffindor and flying instructor Poe Dameron was sliding his chair in, looking thoroughly wind burnt. 

“If you two keep staring like that, someone is liable to set the other on fire. My money is on you, personally. “Poe starting tucking into his food. “Wanna go for a spin after dinner? If you can manage in that getup.”

“It is  _ not  _ a “getup,” she rolled her eyes.” It’s all I had. Besides, I have plans after dinner.” 

“Hmm, with staring Solo?” he gestured with his fork. 

“I can’t hear you over my pie,” Rey said, taking a big bite for food. “Elves really outdid themselves.” She swallowed her mouthful and hid her face in a goblet, taking a substantial gulp of wine. 

The sun had fully set by the time she managed to discreetly slip away and climb all the way up to the Astronomy Tower. The room only contained a large desk, that Ben was sitting on the edge of when she rounded the top. 

Having shed his outer robe, she saw he was wearing a black waistcoat with a delicate emerald filigree embroidered on it. It emphasized his broad outline but tapered waste, and without the robe clasped around his throat, she could see the dip in his collarbone that the shirt didn’t cover.

He must have noticed her studying him because he cleared his throat. “Is this okay? It’s rather warm all the way up here.”

“I don’t. I don’t mind. Sorry, I’m just winded from the stairs.” she chuckled nervously, and he echoed it. 

“You look nice. I mean, you looked nice outside too, but like this, you look like the sun.” Rey snorted, and Ben rubbed the back of his neck nervously but took her hand and guided her to the middle of the room. 

“The sun?” 

“It’s a compliment. The sun is the most radiant thing in our solar system, the giver of life to everything on earth, but you know that part.” He was fidgeting with something in his hands. 

“What did you want to show me?” she asked quietly.

“Right. So this is was my mother’s invention, she’s currently working on a newer model so I can use this one to teach.” He held up a silver locket with the sun and moon face to face on it, each with its own door. Opening the little door to the moon, a brilliant light emitted from it. Rey found herself bathed in a dark blue light with twinkling white dots floating in the air around them. Turning on the spot and blinking, she realized it was the night sky, but in a way, she’d never seen it before. 

“It’s a map of the stars in the Northern hemisphere that are visible this time of year.” He pointed almost directly overhead to an extremely bright star. “Polaris, the north star, to orientate the viewer, so they know which way to look.” He closed the locket, and the room fell back into darkness until it was filled with light again, this time with a rotating model of the solar system above them. 

“This is incredible. I was never great at Astronomy; it never held my attention on a flat piece of parchment, though.” Rey looked up at Ben’s face as he watched the planets slowly spinning above them. He was entranced, and it she noticed for the first time how handsome his strong profile was. 

“I can’t imagine. But this is what I want to bring to the students, and I get a little...passionate about it.” he huffed out a laugh. 

“I felt the same way when I thought you were trying to take away from my classes.” she nudged him gently in the side. “It’s getting late, Ben. But I think tomorrow we should sit down and work something out.” 

“Right.” he closed the locket, and the room plunged back into darkness one last time before the torches re-lit on there own. “So I’ll see you at breakfast then?”

"Yes." she answered and before she could manage more words, he lifted her hand and bent to brush a kiss against the back of it. 

"Good Night then, Rey." 

Going down the winding steps of the Astronomy Tower, she decided that in fact she didn't  _ hate _ the new Professor, not anymore. 


End file.
